Techniques for validating a delivery channel

ABSTRACT

Techniques for validating a delivery channel are described. An apparatus may comprise a validity component operative to query a database of device subscriber information for device information of a device associated with a delivery channel, to analyze the device information to determine whether the device is associated with a user, and to determine whether the delivery channel is valid for communication with the user based on whether the device is associated with the user. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

BACKGROUND

Subscribers to Internet-based services have come to expect thoseservices to reach out to them to communicate important informationrather than merely rely on subscribers to retrieve information on theirown initiative. These services, however, may possess multiple methods ofcontacting subscribers and may there need to select one or more of themethods when contacting a subscriber. Further, the communication ofinformation may be aided by managing the in-progress transmission of theinformation to the subscriber. It is with respect to these and otherconsiderations that the present improvements have been needed.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basicunderstanding of some novel embodiments described herein. This summaryis not an extensive overview, and it is not intended to identifykey/critical elements or to delineate the scope thereof. Its solepurpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude tothe more detailed description that is presented later. Variousembodiments are generally directed to techniques for validating adelivery channel. Some embodiments are particularly directed totechniques for validating a delivery channel to a device based on adatabase of device subscriber information. In one embodiment, forexample, an apparatus may comprise a validity component operative toquery a database of device subscriber information for device informationof a device associated with a delivery channel, to analyze the deviceinformation to determine whether the device is associated with a user,and to determine whether the delivery channel is valid for communicationwith the user based on whether the device is associated with the user.Other embodiments are described and claimed.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, certainillustrative aspects are described herein in connection with thefollowing description and the annexed drawings. These aspects areindicative of the various ways in which the principles disclosed hereincan be practiced and all aspects and equivalents thereof are intended tobe within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other advantages andnovel features will become apparent from the following detaileddescription when considered in conjunction with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a notification system.

FIG. 2 illustrates a second embodiment of a notification systemincluding a logging and machine learning component.

FIG. 3 illustrates a third embodiment of a notification system includinga second event for transmission to a subscriber.

FIG. 4 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a notification systemincluding an event component.

FIG. 5 illustrates a short message service center for use as part of thenotification system.

FIG. 6 illustrates a second embodiment of a short message service centerwhich includes the failed delivery of a partial message.

FIG. 7 illustrates a third embodiment of a short message service centerwhich includes a query and response with a device subscriber informationdatabase.

FIG. 8 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a short message service centerwhich includes a request from a sender to cancel the transmission ofmessage.

FIG. 9 illustrates a fifth embodiment of a short message service centerwhich includes a second message being combined with first message.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a presence system.

FIG. 11 illustrates a second embodiment of a presence system wherein aweb page is used to communicate the presence status.

FIG. 12 illustrates a third embodiment of a presence system wherein asocial networking web page is used to communicate the presence status.

FIG. 13 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a presence system wherein asuccessful partial message is used to determine that a user is present.

FIG. 14 illustrates a fifth embodiment of a presence system wherein afailed partial message is used to determine that a user is not present.

FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment of a validity system.

FIG. 16 illustrates a second embodiment of a validity system wherein adevice subscriber information database is used to determine the validityof delivery channel.

FIG. 17 illustrates a third embodiment of a validity system wherein anapplication on a device is used to check the validity of a deliverychannel.

FIG. 18 illustrates an embodiment of a centralized system for the systemof FIG. 1.

FIG. 19 illustrates an embodiment of a distributed system for the systemof FIG. 1.

FIG. 20 illustrates an embodiment of a logic flow for the system of FIG.1.

FIG. 21 illustrates an embodiment of a computing architecture.

FIG. 22 illustrates an embodiment of a communications architecture.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments are generally directed to an enhanced notificationsystem for communicating notifications to subscribers. Some embodimentsare particularly directed to techniques for communicating notificationsto subscribers through a process of intelligently and programmaticallyselecting delivery channels and actively managing the delivery processon those delivery channels.

An Internet user may subscribe to an Internet-based service andtherefore desire to be contacted by that service when an event ofinterest occurs. For example, an individual may register with a socialnetworking service, set up a profile on the service, register definedrelationships with other subscribers on the service, and perform othersocial networking activities. Events may then occur on the service suchas another subscriber sending a message to the subscriber, posting apicture containing the subscriber, tagging a picture with thesubscriber, placing a message on the subscriber's profile, or otherevents initiated by another subscriber, and so forth. Events may alsooccur that are not dependent on another subscriber, such as the servicedetecting a possible security issue with the subscriber's account,sending a reminder to the subscriber of an event registered with theservice, and the like. A notification system may be used to informsubscribers of these and other events.

It will be appreciated that any event of which the social networkingservice has information may be considered to have occurred on theservice. The service may gather, collect, receive, be sent, or otherwisegain knowledge of events that occur elsewhere, and consider and carryout informing the subscriber of those events which occur internally tothe social networking service. In some cases, this may be accomplishedthrough a third-party plugin from another entity being installed on orregistered with the social networking service. In some cases, this maybe accomplished through a plugin for the social networking service beingregistered with or installed on another service. For example, a bloggingservice may be arranged to share information with the social networkingservice, after which the social networking service may treat events thatoccur on the blogging service as having occurred on the socialnetworking service for the purposes of communicating events tosubscribers. This may be accomplished through the blogging serviceregistering a blogging-service plugin with the social networkingservice, through the social networking service registering asocial-networking plugin with the blogging service, or through any othermechanism which allows the social networking service to gain knowledgeof events that occur on the blogging service.

It will be appreciated that the act of subscribing to a service may notexplicitly include a request to be contacted in the case of interestingevents, and may merely refer to the act of registering with or otherwisecreating an association with a service. Similarly, an Internet-basedservice may merely be a service which makes use of the Internet for theprovisioning of some of its services and not necessarily all of them.

Business logic may be implemented to determine whether to notify aparticular subscriber of a particular event. Upon the occurrence of anevent, the service may perform a determination of whether to transmitthe event to the subscriber in the form of a notification. Thesedeterminations may be based on both global factors—factors which applyto all subscribers to the service—and subscriber-specific factors.Similarly, the determinations may depend on factors common to all eventsand may depend on factors specific to a type of event. For example, itmay be determined that all subscribers will be notified in the case of asecurity issue with their service account. However, it may be determinedthat while some subscribers desire to receive notification of being, forexample, tagged in a photo, that other subscribers do not, and as suchthe determination of whether to send a photo-tagging notification wouldbe different for different subscribers. This determination may be basedon global default assumptions about what subscribers will prefermodified by explicit subscriber preferences, implicit subscriberpreferences determined through machine learning, and current informationabout the status of a subscriber.

The service may have multiple delivery channels for transmitting anotification of an event to the subscriber or for attempting to use totransmit the notification. For instance, the subscriber may haveregistered one or more phone numbers with the service which might beused for voice calls or Short Message Service (SMS) messages. Asubscriber may have registered one or more electronic mail (e-mail)addresses with the service to which notifying e-mails may be sent. Asubscriber currently viewing a web page for the service may receiveinformation pushed onto the web page, such as a pop-up notification,notification indicator, or other method of modifying a web page todisplay a notification. A subscriber may have registered one or moreinstant message (IM) accounts with the service over which IM-basednotification may be sent to the subscriber. The subscriber may have oneor more applications installed on a computer—such as on a desktop,laptop, or mobile device—to which notifications may be pushed.

It will be appreciated that, rather than having registered one or moreof the delivery channels known to the service, the subscriber may havedetermined a delivery channel because of information entered by othersubscribers, through another third-party source, or because the deliverychannel is provided by the Internet-based service, such as an e-mailaddress provided to the subscriber by the service.

With multiple delivery channels for contacting a subscriber, and anotification to deliver, a service may therefore have to select a subsetof the delivery channels to use to send the notification. This selectionmay be based on both global factors—factors which apply to allsubscribers to the service—and subscriber-specific factors. Similarly,the determinations may depend on factors common to all events and maydepend on factors specific to a type of event. For example, it may bedetermined that all known delivery channels will be simultaneously usedin the case of a security issue with a subscriber's account with theservice. However, it may be determined that a given subscriber prefersto receive notification of being, for example, sent a message by anothersubscriber using e-mail or push notification, but not SMS. Thisselection may be based on global default assumptions about what deliverychannels subscribers will prefer modified by explicit subscriberpreferences, implicit subscriber preferences determined through machinelearning, and current information about the status of a subscriber.

The occurrence of an event relevant to a subscriber may, therefore,initiate a multi-stage process in the service of determining how toresponds to it. In a first stage, it is determined whether to transmitthe event to the subscriber. In a second stage, if the event is to becommunicated it is determined which delivery channel(s) of a pluralityof channels to use to communicate the event. In a third stage—again, ifthe event is to be communicated—the event is transformed into anotification, a machine or human-readable message communicating news ofthe event, and transmission is attempted over the determined channels,with that transmission monitored, managed, and potentially modified bythe service. As a result, the embodiments can improve a service'sutility to its subscribers through the intelligent determination of whenand how to contact them.

With general reference to notations and nomenclature used herein, thedetailed descriptions which follow may be presented in terms of programprocedures executed on a computer or network of computers. Theseprocedural descriptions and representations are used by those skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art.

A procedure is here, and generally, conceived to be a self-consistentsequence of operations leading to a desired result. These operations arethose requiring physical manipulations of physical quantities. Usually,though not necessarily, these quantities take the form of electrical,magnetic or optical signals capable of being stored, transferred,combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It proves convenient attimes, principally for reasons of common usage, to refer to thesesignals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters, terms, numbers,or the like. It should be noted, however, that all of these and similarterms are to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities andare merely convenient labels applied to those quantities.

Further, the manipulations performed are often referred to in terms,such as adding or comparing, which are commonly associated with mentaloperations performed by a human operator. No such capability of a humanoperator is necessary, or desirable in most cases, in any of theoperations described herein which form part of one or more embodiments.Rather, the operations are machine operations. Useful machines forperforming operations of various embodiments include general purposedigital computers or similar devices.

Various embodiments also relate to apparatus or systems for performingthese operations. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purpose or it may comprise a general purpose computer asselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. The procedures presented herein are not inherently relatedto a particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposemachines may be used with programs written in accordance with theteachings herein, or it may prove convenient to construct morespecialized apparatus to perform the required method steps. The requiredstructure for a variety of these machines will appear from thedescription given.

Reference is now made to the drawings, wherein like reference numeralsare used to refer to like elements throughout. In the followingdescription, for purposes of explanation, numerous specific details areset forth in order to provide a thorough understanding thereof. It maybe evident, however, that the novel embodiments can be practiced withoutthese specific details. In other instances, well known structures anddevices are shown in block diagram form in order to facilitate adescription thereof. The intention is to cover all modifications,equivalents, and alternatives consistent with the claimed subjectmatter.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram for a notification system 100. In oneembodiment, the notification system 100 may comprise acomputer-implemented notification system 100 having a notificationengine 130 comprising one or more components. Although the notificationsystem 100 shown in FIG. 1 has a limited number of elements in a certaintopology, it may be appreciated that the notification system 100 mayinclude more or less elements in alternate topologies as desired for agiven implementation.

It is worthy to note that “a” and “b” and “c” and similar designators asused herein are intended to be variables representing any positiveinteger. Thus, for example, if an implementation sets a value for a=5,then a complete set of delivery channels 170-a may include five deliverychannels 170-1, 170-2, 170-3, 170-4 and 170-5. The embodiments are notlimited in this context.

The notification system 100 may comprise the notification engine 130.The notification engine 130 may be generally arranged to receive anevent 115 from an online service, such as a social networking service110, and to determine whether and how to communicate the event 115 to asubscriber 120 of the social networking service 110 using known deliverychannels 170-a.

The notification engine 130 may comprise a channel component 140. Thechannel component 140 may be operative to receive an event 115 from thesocial networking service 110 to communicate to a subscriber 120 of thesocial networking service 110. The notification engine 130 may determineor select one or more channels 145 of a plurality of channels 170-a tocommunicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120. This determination maybe made according to rankings 150 associated with each channel 170-a,the rankings 150 specific to the subscriber 120, and according tosubscriber history, among other factors.

The event 115 may comprise any piece of information the socialnetworking service 110 determines relevant to or associated with thesubscriber 120. It may correspond to a change, issue, or developmentrelated to an account for the subscriber 120 in the social networkingservice 110. The event 115 may correspond to a change, issue, ordevelopment related to a contact, friend, associate, or another definedrelationship of the subscriber 120 on the social networking service 110.The event 115 may correspond to a development independent of thesubscriber 120 which has an effect on the subscriber 120 or theirprofile, such as the date changing to a day on which the subscriber 120has registered a social engagement with the social networking service110, the event 115 therefore notifying them of the social engagementbecause of the change in date. In some embodiments, the notificationengine 130 may comprise a component or part of the social networkingservice 110 or be maintained by the same provider as the socialnetworking service 110. In other embodiments, the notification engine130 may be distinct from the social networking service 110.

The channel component 140 may use channel rankings 150 to determine theone or more channels 145 to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber120. A channel ranking may comprise an estimation of the weightedpreference of the subscriber 120 for using that channel to communicatewith them. For example, if a user has both a registered SMS channel ande-mail channel with the notification engine 130 the channel rankings 150may represent a relative bias of the subscriber 120 for using the SMSchannel versus using the e-mail channel. A subscriber 120 who desires toreceive e-mails over SMSs would have a higher weighting on the e-mailchannel over the SMS channel. The channel component 140 may select thechannels 145 with a weight greater than a predefined threshold. Thechannel component 140 may be operative to always select at least thehighest-weight channel of the plurality of delivery channels 170-a.

An event 115 may be of a particular type. In one embodiment, forexample, the type may be one of security notice, profile activity,friend activity, and message. It will be appreciated that other types orcategories of events may be used. The channel rankings 150 for asubscriber 120 may be global across the type of an event 115 or may bespecific to a type of event 115. The channel rankings 150 may have bothglobal weights and type-specific weights for each channel, such that fora specific event 115 the weights used to determine which channels 145will be used may be a combination of the global weights and thetype-specific weights for the type corresponding to event 115. Thechannel component 140 may therefore be operative to construct combinedweights for each channel of the delivery channels 170-1 based on bothglobal weights and type-specific weights, the constructed combinedweights used to determine the channels 145 used to transmit event 115.Combining weights may comprise adding together the weights, averagingthe weights, or any other known method of combining weights. In someembodiments, the type-specific weights may be pre-set according toglobal defaults to be higher for certain higher-priority types ofevents, such as security notices. Pre-setting the type-specific weightfor security notices would increase the tendency of the channelcomponent 140 to transmit security notices across a greater number ofdelivery channels.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative to use areduced weight for a delivery channel if the delivery channel has one ormore notifications pending on the channel. The channel component 140 maybe operative to reduce the weight of the delivery channelproportionately to the number of pending notifications, or may generallybe operative to reduce the weight increasingly for each additionalpending notification on the channel. In some embodiments, the channelcomponent 140 may be operative to reduce the weight of a deliverychannel if and only if the delivery channel has one or morenotifications pending on the channel of the same type as event 115.

The channel rankings 150 may be determined according to subscriberhistory. Subscriber history may correspond to a complete or partialrecord of the interaction between subscriber 120 and social networkingservice 110 or notification engine 130 for a defined time period (e.g.,days, weeks, years, etc.). For example, the channel rankings 150 may behigher for a particular delivery channel if the subscriber 120 has asubscriber history which indicates a preference for or a greaterlikelihood to respond to that delivery channel. The decision of whetherand how to transmit an event 115 to a subscriber 120 may depend on thecombined rankings, which may be dependent on a type of the event 115. Assuch, the decision of whether and how to transmit an event 115 to asubscriber 120 may depend on a correlation between the event 115 and thechannel rankings 150.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative todetermine the one or more channels 145 based on the associated rankings150 and one or more of preferences set by the subscriber 120,information about subscriber devices, subscriber presence on one or moredevices, a current location, or a current date and time.

Subscriber preferences set by the subscriber 120 may correspond toexplicitly-set preferences registered with the notification engine 130or the social networking service 110. Preferences may comprise anexplicit indication by the subscriber 120 that certain types of eventsshould always be or should never be communicated via a particulardelivery channel. Preferences may comprise an explicit indication by thesubscriber 120 that certain delivery channels are preferred or are notpreferred for the communication of events or for the communication ofcertain types of events.

Information about subscriber devices may comprise information about thecurrent status of devices associated with the subscriber 120. Forexample, an SMS may not be sent to a particular subscriber mobile deviceif the mobile device is determined to be unpowered, have low batterypower, or is otherwise unavailable on a cellular network. Similarly, apush notification may not be sent to an application if the devicehosting the application is determined to be unavailable.

Subscriber presence may correspond to information indicating that asubscriber 120 is available for communication via a particular deliverychannel. A delivery channel and device used on that channel may providepresence information, the presence information evidence for or againstthe subscriber being available for communicating via the deliverychannel. For example, the subscriber responding to an e-mail maycomprise evidence that the subscriber is present on an e-mail channel. Afailed attempt to send a SMS message to a subscriber's device mayprovide evidence that the subscriber is not present on an SMS channel. Asubscriber's presence status may comprise a determination by a presencesystem, such as may be included in channel component 140, of whether thesubscriber is present on one or more delivery channels. In cases wherethe channel component 140 only has one piece of evidence regarding asubscriber's presence, that evidence may decide the presence status. Incases where the channel component 140 has multiple pieces of evidenceregarding a delivery channel the evidence may be combined together toproduce the presence status. For example, an instant messaging servicemay maintain a record of whether the subscriber 120 is present on theservice. The channel component 140 may weight more heavily a deliverychannel if the subscriber 120 is confirmed to be present on the deliverychannel, or may remove a delivery channel from consideration if thesubscriber 120 is confirmed to not be present on the delivery channel.

Current location may correspond to a current location of the subscriber120. The location of a subscriber 120 may be determined according to oneor more devices associated with a subscriber 120. For instance, a mobiledevice associated with subscriber 120 may have a Global PositioningSystem (GPS) unit capable of determining the mobile device's currentlocation. The channel component 140 may be operative to be more likelyto use a delivery channel which interrupts the subscriber 120—such as anSMS—if the subscriber 120 is in a location corresponding to the event115.

The current date and time may correspond to the current date and time ofthe social networking service 110 or the subscriber 120. The channelcomponent 140 may be operative to be more likely to use a deliverychannel which interrupts the subscriber 120 if the notification 155 willbe received during daylight, working, or waking hours.

In some embodiments, the received event 115 may be associated with asecond subscriber, the subscriber 120 and second subscriber having adefined relationship in the social networking service 110. The secondsubscriber may specifically be a subscriber of the social networkingservice 110. A defined relationship may comprise any relationship thatmay be defined, represented, or registered with the social networkingservice 110. A defined relationship may comprise a friendship, workingrelationship, familial relationship, school relationship,friend-of-friend relationship, or any other type of definedrelationship. The event 115 associated with a second subscriber maycomprise, for example, the second subscriber sending a message to thesubscriber 120, the second subscriber tagging the subscriber 120 in aphoto, the second subscriber posting on a wall or profile of thesubscriber 120, the second subscriber inviting the subscriber 120 to anevent, the second subscriber inviting the subscriber 120 to join agroup, the second subscribing liking or commenting on a post or piece ofprofile information of subscriber 120, or any other form of interactionassociated with both subscriber 120 and the second subscriber.

In some embodiments, the plurality of delivery channels 170-a maycomprise two or more of short message service (SMS), telephone,electronic mail (e-mail), push-based e-mail, internet message accessprotocol (IMAP) Idle notifications, Outlook mobile access (OMA) pushnotifications, instant message (IM), voice notifications throughinteractive voice response (IVR), unstructured supplementary servicedata (USSD) notifications, SIP notifications, web notifications, pushnotification to a mobile application, any other form of pushnotification, or any other technique for transmitting a notification 155to a subscriber 120. The plurality of delivery channels 170-a maycomprise any known form of electronic communication between anotification engine 130 and a subscriber 120.

The notification component 160 may be operative to construct anotification 155 based on the event 115 and to transmit the notification155 to the subscriber using the determined one or more channels 145.Constructing a notification 155 may comprise translating the event 115from a machine-readable format to a human-readable format. For example,the event 115 may be encoded in a data structure object while thenotification 155 may be a text string with associated fields containinginformation relevant to the transmission and management of thecommunication of event 115 to the subscriber 120. The translation fromevent 115 to notification 155 by the notification component 160 maycomprise a translation into a local language or preferred language ofsubscriber 120; for example, the event 115 may be stored according to adefault language of social networking service 110 and translated into alanguage appropriate to subscriber 120 during the construction ofnotification 155. If a type of event is associated with event 115 thenconstructing notification 155 may comprise retrieving a text templateassociated with the type of event and modifying the text template—suchas by filling blanks in the text template—with details of event 115.

Notification 155 may be constructed based on the channels 145 selectedby the channel component 140. If multiple delivery channels areselected, notification 155 may be constructed in a plurality ofinstantiations, wherein each instantiation is specific to a deliverychannel. For example, an SMS may have a limited number of characters,such that a notification 155 has a particular instantiation for an SMSchannel distinct from an instantiation for an e-mail channel. An event115 of a particular type may have a number of text templates specific toeach of delivery channels 170-a, each of the text templates retrievedand modified according to event 115 once the channels 145 are selectedby the channel component 140.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative todetermine two or more channels 145 of the plurality of channels 170-a,the notification component 160 operative to cancel the transmission ofthe event 115 on one of the two or more channels 145 in response to thesuccessful transmission of the event 115 on another of the two or morechannels 145. For example, if a subscriber 120 has open a web page forthe social networking service 110 on a desktop computer, but is out ofthe house and has with them a mobile device capable of receiving SMSmessages, then if the notification engine 130 were to transmit thenotification 155 to the subscriber 120 via both web notification andSMS, and the user were to respond to the notification 155 from the SMS,then the notification component 160 may cancel the web notification inresponse to the successful SMS notification. As such, when thesubscriber 120 returns home they would not see a web notification ontheir desktop computer for an event 115 to which they already responded.

In some embodiments, the notification component 160 may be operative todetermine that one of the determined delivery channels 145 has had afailed delivery attempt, the channel component 140 operative todetermine an additional delivery channel of the plurality of deliverychannels 170-a to use to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber120, the notification component 160 operative to transmit thenotification 155 to the subscriber 120 using the determined additionaldelivery channel. The determination of the additional delivery channelmay be performed according to the technique used for determining theinitial set of channels 145 wherein the delivery channel with the faileddelivery attempt is excluded from the set of possible delivery channels.In some embodiments, the notification component 160 may be operative todetermine that two or more of the determined delivery channels 145 hashad a failed delivery attempt and to determine an additional deliverychannel in response. In some embodiments, the notification component 160may be operative to determine that all of the one or more determineddelivery channels 145 have had a failed delivery attempt and todetermine an additional delivery channel in response.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative toperiodically reevaluate notification 155 if it has not yet beensuccessfully transmitted to the subscriber 120. This reevaluation mayoccur on a set schedule, such as once an hour. The channel component 140may be operative to reevaluate whether the one or more delivery channels145 of the plurality of delivery channels 170-a is still the appropriateset of delivery channels. For instance, if a failed delivery channel ofthe one or more delivery channels 145 has had one or more faileddelivery attempts, the channel component 140 may be operative to reducethe weight or ranking of the failed delivery channel in determining theone or more delivery channels 145 and to re-determine the one or moredelivery channels 145 using the new weight or ranking for the faileddelivery channel. As such, the channel component 140 may be operative toperiodically reevaluate the status of the notification 155 and todetermine a second set of one or more delivery channels of the pluralityof delivery channels 170-a to communicate the event 115 to thesubscriber 120, the second set of one or more delivery channelscomprising at least one additional delivery channel that was not presentin the one or more channels 145 initially determined. In general, thechannel component 145 may be operative to re-valuate any of thedeterminations it has previously made during a periodic reevaluation.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative to checkthe validity of one or more of the plurality of delivery channels 170-ain response to the received event 115 and to determine the one or moredelivery channels 170-a to use to communicate the event 115 to thesubscriber 120 according to the validity check. A validity check maycomprise any analysis or calculating performed on a delivery channel todetermine whether the delivery channel is associated with a subscriber120.

For example, a subscriber 120 may register a phone number with thesocial networking service 110. Over time a subscriber 120 may changetheir phone number. However, the subscriber 120 may not think to informthe social networking service 110 that their phone number has changed orthat the phone number they registered with the social networking service110 is no longer valid. As such, the social networking service 110 maywish to gather information which may indicate whether or not a phonenumber is still associated with a subscriber 120. This may begeneralized to other delivery channels. The channel component 140 maytherefore be operative to perform checks on a registered deliverychannel to determine whether it is still a valid delivery channel. Thechannel component 140 may therefore be operative to only include thosedelivery channels with a positive validity check, or only those deliverychannels without a negative validity check, in its consideration ofdetermining channels 145.

FIG. 2 illustrates a second block diagram for a notification system 100.The notification engine 130 may comprise a logging component 210 and amachine learning component 220.

A logging component 210 may be operative to record subscriber responses265-c to prior notifications 255-b, the recorded responses 265-ccomprising the subscriber history 215. The subscriber 120 may carry outa plurality of interactions with notification engine 130 or socialnetworking service 110, which may be recorded by logging component 210into subscriber history 215. In particular, this plurality ofinteractions may correspond to a plurality of notifications 255-b sentto subscriber 120 and a plurality of responses 265-c received from thesubscriber 120. It will be appreciated that as the notification engine130 may be working on behalf of social networking service 110, that theresponses 265-c may be responses 265-c in which the subscriber 120responded to a notification by contacting the social networking service110.

It will further be appreciated that not every response 265-c from thesubscriber 120 may correspond to the reception of a communication fromsubscriber 120 by the notification engine 130 or the social networkingservice 110. Particularly, the failure or declination of a subscriber120 to respond to a notification 155 may be considered as valuable apiece of information as the success or choice of a subscriber 120 torespond to a notification 155 in that either may reflect the respectivedisinclination or preference of the subscriber 120 for receivingnotifications about a particular type of event, notification via aparticular delivery channel 170-a, or notifications about a particulartype of event via a particular delivery channel 170-a. As such, theresponses 265-c recorded in subscriber history 215 may comprise, foreach notification 255-b sent to the subscriber 120, whether or not thesubscriber 120 responded to the notification 155, which channel of thedelivery channels 170-a they responded to, and the time between thetransmission of the notification 155 and the received response.

The delivery channel 170-a over which the subscriber 120 responded maybe determined according to a number of different methods. Over atext-based delivery channel such as SMS, e-mail, or IM the notification155 may include a URL specific to the channel such that the subscriber120 opening the URL indicates to the social networking service 110 whichdelivery channel was responsible for the subscriber 120 responding. Overa delivery channel capable of carrying a response—such as SMS,telephone, e-mail, IM, push notification, or web notification—thedelivery channel responsible for the subscriber 120 responding may beindicated by the subscriber's response being returned over that deliverychannel.

A machine learning component 220 may be operative to determine theassociated rankings 150 according to the recorded responses in thesubscriber history 215. Each delivery channel 170-a may have associatedwith it a channel ranking 150. The machine learning component 220 may beoperative to set the starting weights for each delivery channel 170-aaccording to default weights for the social networking service 110. Themachine learning component 220 may be operative to adjust the weightsfor each delivery channel 170-a based on the subscriber history 215. Themachine learning component 220 may be operative to adjust weights whichare specific to a delivery channel but global across type of event, toadjust weights which are specific to a type of event but global acrossdelivery channel, and to adjust weights which are specific to bothdelivery channel and type of event. These weights may be combinedtogether during the determination of the channels 145 by channelcomponent 140.

The machine learning component 220 may be operative to increase theweight of a delivery channel 170-a if a response 265-c is received for anotification 255-b sent across delivery channel 170-a. The machinelearning component 220 may be operative to decrease the weight of adelivery channel 170-a if a response 265-c is not received for anotification 255-b sent across delivery channel 170-a. The machinelearning component 220 may be operative to increase the weight of adelivery channel 170-a for a specific type of notification if a response265-c is received for a notification 255-b of that type sent acrossdelivery channel 170-a. The machine learning component 220 may beoperative to decrease the weight of a delivery channel 170-a for aspecific type of notification if a response 265-c is not received for anotification 255-b of that type sent across delivery channel 170-a.

The machine learning component 220 may be operative to increase theweight of a delivery channel 170-a if the subscriber 120 indicates thata delivery channel 170-a is preferred via explicitly set subscriberpreferences. The machine learning component 220 may be operative todecrease the weight of a delivery channel 170-a if the subscriber 120indicated that a delivery channel 170-a is not preferred via explicitlyset subscriber preferences.

The process of adjusting and setting channel rankings 150 may beperformed according to any one of the known methods or algorithms formachine learning. For example, the preferences of a subscriber 120 forreceiving a particular type of notification 255-b over a particulardelivery channel 170-a may be expressed as a probability within aBayesian network wherein an event 115 being of a particular type andbeing transmitted over a particular delivery channel 170-a are theinputs and the subscriber 120 responding or not is the output. However,other methods may be used.

FIG. 3 illustrates a third block diagram for a notification system 100.The notification engine 130 may face a situation in which a second event315 is received by the channel component 140 while an event 115 is stillin the process of being communicated to the subscriber 120 via one ormore delivery channels 170-a.

In some embodiments, the channel component 140 may be operative toreceive a second event 315 associated with the subscriber 120 and todetermine to communicate the second event 315 to the subscriber 120, thenotification component 160 operative to combine the event 115 and thesecond event 315 into a second notification 355, the second notification355 replacing the notification 155 for transmission to the subscriber.Upon receiving the second event 315 the channel component 140 may beoperative to determine that the notification 155 has not yet beensuccessfully delivered to the subscriber 120 and to determine that theevent 115 and second event 315 may be combined together forcommunication to the subscriber 120. In some embodiments, two events maybe combined together whenever more than one event is pending for asubscriber 120, whenever more than one event of the same type is pendingfor a subscriber 120, or whenever more than one event is pending for asubscriber 120 across a particular delivery channel.

Combining together two events into second notification 355 may compriseconstructing a digest notification using a digest template forcommunicating multiple events. A digest template may comprise a textstring with places for inserting text related to both the type of eventand the specific event being communicated. Alternatively, the secondnotification 355 may comprise two notifications concatenated togethersuch that the complete text for both is transmitted across the selecteddelivery channel(s).

FIG. 4 illustrates a fourth block diagram for a notification system 100.The notification engine 130 may comprise an event component 410 withevent rankings 450.

An event component 410 may be operative to receive the event 115, theevent 115 associated with the subscriber 120 and comprising a type ofevent, the event component 410 operative to determine to communicate theevent 115 to the subscriber 120 based on a ranking 450 specific to thesubscriber 120 and to the type of event. In general the event rankings450 may be generally similar to the channel rankings 150 in that theymay include default rankings, subscriber-specific rankings,event-specific rankings, and combinations thereof.

The determination by the event component 410 of whether to communicatethe event 115 based on the event rankings 450 may be accomplishedaccording to a variety of techniques. The event rankings 450 may includea general subscriber-specific weight which indicates a general weightingof whether subscriber 120 wishes to receive notification of events. Theevent rankings 450 may include type-specific weights which indicatewhether subscriber 120 wishes to receive notification of a particulartype of event. The event component 410 may be operative to combinetogether these weights to produce a combined weighting for a particularevent 115. The event component 410 may be operative to transmit thoseevents whose combined weights exceed a predefined threshold.

Additionally or alternatively, the functions of event component 410 maybe combined with the functions of channel component 140. For example,the channel rankings 150 may be the same as event rankings 450 such thatfor each event 115 a weight is produced for that event 115. The event115 may be transmitted to subscriber 120 only if the combined weight fora particular delivery channel of the delivery channels 170-a exceeds athreshold and will be transmitted across all channels 145 whoseassociated combined weights exceed the threshold.

The event rankings 450 may be determined through a process substantiallysimilar to the determination of the channel rankings 150. The machinelearning component 220 may be operative to increase the weight in theevent rankings 450 for a type of event if a response 265-c is receivedfor a notification 255-b of that type. The machine learning component220 may be operative to decrease the weight in the event rankings 450for a type of event if a response 265-c is not received for anotification 255-b of that type.

In some embodiments, the freshness of an event 115—the time since theoccurrence of the event 115—may be a factor in whether or not the event115 is communicated to the subscriber 120. The event component 410 maybe operative to be more likely to communicate an event 115 to thesubscriber 120 if it is fresher and less likely to communicate the event115 to the subscriber 120 if it is less fresh. As such, the eventcomponent 410 may be operative to determine to communicate the event 115to the subscriber 120 based on a ranking 450 specific to the subscriber120 and to the type of event and based on an amount of time since anoccurrence of the event 115.

In some embodiments, the event component 410 may be operative toperiodically reevaluate event 115 if it has not yet been successfullytransmitted to the subscriber 120. This reevaluation may occur on a setschedule, such as once an hour. In some cases, the event component 410may be operative to perform this reevaluation in sync with or incoordination with a reevaluation performed by the channel component 140.The event component 410 may be operative to reevaluate whether event 115should still be communicated to the subscriber 120 given the passage oftime and the possible failure to deliver the event 115 to the subscribervia a notification 155. Therefore, on re-evaluation an event 115 thatthe event component 410 once indicated should be communicated may bedetermined to no longer be sufficiently relevant and the event component410 may determine not to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber120. As such, the event component 410 may be operative to periodicallyreevaluate the status of the event 115 and to determine whether tocommunicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120 based on a ranking 450specific to the subscriber 120 and to the type of event and based on asecond amount of time since an occurrence of the event 115, the secondamount of time larger than the amount of time used in the initialdetermination to communicate the event 115. In general, the eventcomponent 410 may be operative to re-valuate any of the determinationsit has previously made during a periodic reevaluation.

In some embodiments, the event component 410 may be operative to use areduced weight for the general subscriber-specific weight or for theevent-specific weights if the subscriber 120 has one or morenotifications pending. The event component 410 may be operative to use areduced subscriber-specific weight if the subscriber 120 has one or morenotifications pending. The event component 410 may be operative to use areduced type-specific weight if the subscriber 120 has one or morenotifications pending of that type. The event component 410 may beoperative to reduce a weight proportionately to the number of pendingnotifications, or may generally be operative to reduce the weightincreasingly for each additional pending notification on the channel. Assuch, the subscriber 120 may be protected from being bombarded by alarge number of notifications when they access them.

FIG. 5 illustrates a short message service center 530 for use as part ofthe notification system 100. The short messages service center (SMSC)530 may comprise a reception component 540, a transmission component550, and a control component 560.

The reception component 540 may be operative to receive a short messageservice (SMS) message 515 for communication to a device 520 from asender 510. Receiving a SMS message 515 from a sender 510 may comprisethe sender transmitting a text-encoded string comprising thehuman-readable message for the user of device 520 along with a phonenumber identifying the device 520. Unlike traditional SMSCs, the SMSC530 may be operative to receive, send, forward, manage, and otherwiseprocess SMS messages on behalf of applications, such as a socialnetworking service 110.

Sender 510 could comprise a variety of different types of senders. Insome cases, sender 510 may be an individual—or a device such as a mobilephone acting on behalf of an individual—desiring to send an SMS messageto device 520. Alternatively, sender 510 may be a computer system notassociated with a particular individual. Sender 510 may be a gateway orSMSC of another cellular provider, the sender 510 transmitting themessage 515 to the SMSC 530 for forwarding to a device 520 served bySMSC 530. Sender 510 may be a server or server system that uses SMSmessages to communicate with users or subscribers, such as notificationengine 130. In any of these cases, the SMSC 530 may be operative toreceive message 515 from the sender 510, to attempt delivery to thedevice 520, to send feedback about the delivery process to the sender510, and to receive commands to modify or cancel the delivery fromsender 510.

The transmission component 550 may be operative to initiate transmissionof the message 515 to the device. The transmission of the message 515 tothe device 520 may be accomplished according to one of a variety ofmethods. The message 515 may specify a phone number identifying thedevice 520, the phone number used to retrieve routing information forthe device 520, the routing information used by the transmissioncomponent 550 to transmit the message 515 to the device 520. If thedevice 520 is a mobile device belonging to or subscriber to a cellularnetwork maintained by the operator of the SMSC 530, meaning that themessage 515 is an intra-operator message, then the routing informationfor the device 520 may be stored by the SMSC 530 and directly accessibleby the transmission component 550. If the device 520 is a mobile devicebelonging to or subscriber to a cellular networking maintained by adifferent operator than the operator of SMSC 530, then the transmissioncomponent 550 may be operative to request the routing information fromthe SMSC of the cellular network to which the device 520 belongs.Alternatively, the transmission component 550 may be operative totransmit the message 515 to the SMSC of the cellular network to whichthe device 520 belongs.

The control component 560 may be operative to monitor the transmissionof the message 515 to the device 520. Monitoring the transmission of themessage 515 may comprise the control component 560 maintaining an activerecord of whether the message 515 has been successfully delivered todevice 520, whether the transmission component 550 has had a faileddelivery attempt of the message 515 to the device 520, and if so, howmany failed delivery attempts. In the case of failed delivery attempts,the control component 560 may be operative to record informationindicating the reason for the failed delivery, such as a device beingregistered with a cellular network or Subscriber Presence and ProfileDatabase (SPPD) as being turned off, a device not being registered asbeing turned off but nevertheless not being able to be found in thecellular network, or a device being found in the cellular network butfailing to successfully respond to a transmission attempt. The controlcomponent 560 may be further operative to monitor whether a transmissionby the transmission component 550 to the device 520 has been cancelledor delayed due to the transmission component 550 determining that thedevice is in a state, such as roaming, indicating that transmissionshould be delayed or cancelled. The monitoring by the control component560 may comprise the control component receiving monitoring information555 from the transmission component 550 and sending control commands 565to the transmission component 550.

FIG. 6 illustrates a second embodiment of a short message service center530 for use as part of the notification system 100 which includes thefailed delivery of a partial message 615.

The transmission component 550 may be operative to transmit a partialmessage 615 to the device 520 and to determine that the partial message615 was not delivered to the device 520, the control component 560operative to notify the sender 510 that the device 520 is not availablein response to the partial message 615 not being delivered.

A partial message 615 may comprise a message containing routinginformation for the device 520 but without a message body for the userof device 520. The partial message 615 may comprise a metadata commandor command in the header of the partial message 615 to indicate to thedevice 520 that a response is requested, such as by sending the “AT”console command in order to request a corresponding “OK” signal from thedevice 520. Determining that the partial message 615 was not deliveredto the device 520 may comprise the transmission component 550calculating that a sufficient period of time has passed since thetransmission of the partial message 615 to the device 520 without aresponse being received to indicate that the device 520 is available,such as through the expiration of a time-to-live (TTL) timer.

The control component 560 may be operative to transmit a notification665 to the sender 510 indicating that the device 520 is not available inresponse to the partial message 615 not being delivered. This maycomprise a message containing a string, number, or other identifierindicating a failed delivery attempt along with an identifier formessage 515.

The partial message 615 may comprise an attempt by the transmissioncomponent 550 to determine the availability of device 520 prior tosending message 515 and may comprise a regular part of the transmissionof messages to devices. In response to a successful delivery of partialmessage 615 the transmission component 550 may be operative toautomatically send the message 515 to the device 520. In someembodiments, the transmission component 550 may be operative toperiodically attempt to resend the partial message 615 in order todetermine the availability of device 520 to receive message 515 untilthe partial message 615 is successfully received. In these embodiments,the control component 560 may be operative to repeatedly sendnotifications like notification 665 to the sender 510 in order to updatethem on the progress of establishing that device 520 is available toreceive message 515. These notifications may include informationregarding the number of failed partial messages if multiple partialmessages have been sent without response.

FIG. 7 illustrates a third embodiment of a short message service center530 for use as part of the notification system 100 which includes aquery 715 and response with a device subscriber information database720.

In some embodiments, the sender 510 may be a notification engine 130 fora social networking service 110, the received message 515 comprising anotification 155 to a subscriber 120 of the social networking service110. In these embodiments, the SMSC 530 may comprise a controller orgateway used by the notification component 160 in order to access one ofthe delivery channels 170-a. The SMSC 530 may be operative to transmit,manage, modify, or cancel SMS messages on behalf of the notificationcomponent 160 either independently or of in response to commands fromthe notification component 160. The SMSC 530 may be operative totransmit status information about in-progress messages back to thenotification component 160, to notify the notification component 160 ofsuccessful deliveries to subscribers, and to notify the notificationcomponent 160 of failed delivery attempts.

The control component 560 may be operative to query a device subscriberinformation database 720 of device subscriber information for deviceinformation 725 of the device 520 prior to transmission of the message515 to the device, to analyze the device information 725 to determinethat the device 520 is associated with the subscriber 120, and to allowtransmission of the message 515 to the device 520 based on determiningthat the device 520 is associated with the subscriber 120. The controlcomponent 560 may also be operative to query the device subscriberinformation database 720 of device subscriber information for deviceinformation 725 of the device 520 prior to transmission of the message515 to the device 520, to analyze the device information 725 todetermine that the device 520 may not be associated with the subscriber120, and to cancel transmission of the message 515 to the device 520based on determining that the device 520 is associated with thesubscriber 120.

In some cases, a subscriber 120 may register a phone number with socialnetworking service 110, eventually change phone numbers, and fail toinform the social networking service 110 that their phone number haschanged. If the SMSC 530 can detect that the phone number has changedthen the social networking service 110 can refrain from using the phonenumber as a delivery channel in order to avoid annoying the new ownerand potentially violating the privacy of the subscriber 120. The SMSC530 may be operative to automatically perform this on behalf of thesocial networking service 110 or may be operative to perform this inresponse to a request from the social networking service 110.

The device subscriber information database 720 may comprise a SubscriberPresence and Profile Database (SSPD) such as a Home Location Register(HLR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS), or User Profile Server Function(UPSF) maintained by a cellular provider. The control component 560 maybe operative to send a query 715 to the SSPD comprising the phone numberassociated with the device 520. In some cases, the phone number may alsobe referred to as a Mobile Subscriber Integrated Services DigitalNetwork-Number (MSISDN). In response to the query 715, the controlcomponent 560 may receive device information 725 which may compriseinformation about the device 520. The device information 725 may includean Integrated Circuit Card Identifier (ICCID) (e.g. an InternationalMobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)), which is a unique identifier for thesubscriber identity module (SIM) assigned to each device. The controlcomponent 560 may be operative to compare the ICCID for device 520 to apreviously-recorded ICCID for the device 520. If the ICCIDs match, thenthat indicates that the same SIM card is associated with the phonenumber as before which may indicate that the device 520 is stillassociated with subscriber 120. If the ICCIDs do not match, then thatindicates that a new SIM card is associated with the phone number, whichmay indicate that a new phone is associated with the phone number. Inthe case where a new phone device is associated with the phone numberthe control component 560 may determine that the device 520 may not beassociated with the subscriber 120, and as such may cancel transmissionof the message 515 to the device 520.

It will be appreciated that instead of performing the validation,allowance, or cancelling of messages based on information retrieved fromthe device subscriber information database 720 that the controlcomponent 560 may provide the device information 725 to the sender 510in order to allow the sender 510 (such as social networking service 110or notification engine 130) to determine whether to allow transmissionof the message 515 or to cancel transmission of the message 515 usingthe SMSC 530. This providing of device information 725 to the sender 510may be performed automatically in response to a message 515 being queuedwith the SMSC 530 or may in response to a request by the sender 510 toreceive device information 725. It will be appreciated that, also, insome embodiments the notification engine 130 may perform the request andretrieval of device information 725 from the device subscriberinformation database 720 and directly perform the analysis as describedfor the control component 560.

FIG. 8 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a short message service center530 for use as part of the notification system 100 which includes arequest 815 from the sender 510 to cancel the transmission of message515 to device 520.

The control component 560 may be operative to receive a request 815 fromthe sender 510 to cancel the transmission of the message 515 to thedevice 520, the transmission component 550 operative to cancel thetransmission of the message 515 to the device 520 in response to thereceived request 815. The request 815 may comprise a command sent fromsender 510 to the SMSC 530 along the same channel of communication asmessage 515, the command comprising an identifier for message 515 alongwith a code indicating that message 515 should be cancelled if possible.

In some cases, the sender 510 may desire to cancel an in-progressmessage 515 from being delivered to device 520. If sender 510 is anotification engine 130 for social networking service 110 thenotification engine 130 may cancel the message 515 from being sent viaSMS by SMSC 530 for a variety of reasons: because the content of message515 was communicated to subscriber 120 via another delivery channel ofdelivery channels 170-a, because the content of message 515 is no longerrelevant to subscriber 120, because the social networking service 110wishes to combine the content of message 515 with another notificationinto a digest notification, or to service any other function of socialnetworking service 110.

Cancelling the transmission of message 515 to device 520 may comprisedequeueing the message 515 from a send or re-send queue of transmissioncomponent 550. A send queue of transmission component 550 may comprise aqueue used to manage the order of the transmission of messages todevices. A re-send queue of transmission component 550 may comprise aqueue used to manage the order of reattempting the transmission ofmessages with failed attempts to send or with failed attempts to send apartial message. In general, the control component 560 may be operativeto use control commands 565 to instruct transmission component 550 tocancel sending message 515 to device 520 if message 515 has not beensuccessfully sent, which may comprise cancelling the first attempt totransmit message 515 to device 520 or may comprise cancelling a re-tryattempt to transmit message 515 to device 520.

FIG. 9 illustrates a fifth embodiment of a short message service center530 for use as part of the notification system 100 which includes asecond message 915 being combined with message 515 for transmission tothe device 520.

The reception component 540 may be operative to receive a second SMSmessage 915 for communication to the device 520 from the sender 510, thecontrol component 560 operative to combine the message 515 and thesecond message 915 into a third message 925, the transmission component550 operative to replace the message 515 with the third message 925 fortransmission to the device 520. Upon the reception component 540receiving the second message 915, the control component 560 may beoperative to determine that the message 515 has not yet been deliveredto device 520, and that it should combine the two messages together inresponse. In some embodiments, two or more messages may be combinedtogether whenever more than one message is pending for a device 520,whenever more than one message of the same type (such as an event typefor a social networking service 110) is pending for a device 520,whenever more than one message is pending for a device 520 from aparticular sender 510, or a combination of the two. In some embodiments,the control component 560 may be operative to combine the messagestogether based on a request from the sender 510 to do so or maydetermine that two messages queued which may be combined together, toquery the sender 510 to determine if the messages should be combinedtogether, and to combine the messages together in the case of anaffirmative response to the query.

Combining together two messages into third message 925 may compriseconstructing a digest message using a digest template for communicatingmultiple messages. A digest template may comprise a text headerindicating that the third message is a digest message followed by thetext of both messages.

FIG. 10 illustrates an embodiment of a presence system 1000 for use withnotification system 100. The presence system 1000 may comprise apresence component 1030 and a display component 1040. The presencesystem 1000 may comprise a sub-component of channel component 140 ofnotification engine 130.

The presence system 1000 may specifically be operative to monitor thepresence status 1035 of a first user 1010 on a mobile device 1015 acrossdelivery channel 1025. In some embodiments, the mobile device 1015 maycomprise a mobile phone, wherein the delivery channel 1025 comprises anSMS channel, the presence status 1035 is an indicator of whether firstuser 1010 is available on an SMS channel.

The presence component 1030 may be operative to determine whether afirst user 1010 is present to receive SMS messages on a mobile device1010. First user 1010 may be considered present if there is affirmativeinformation that first user 1010 is at mobile device 1015 and capable ofresponding to messages, or may correspond to mobile device 1015 beingavailable to receive messages.

Determining whether first user 1010 is present may comprise any of theknown techniques for determining presence. For example, the presencecomponent 1030 may contact mobile device 1015 over delivery channel 1025and determine that first user 1010 is present on mobile device 1015because it receives a response from mobile device 1015, such as anautomatic response to a message. Alternatively, presence component 1030may keep a record of information indicating whether or not first user1010 is present on mobile device 1015—such as logs of communications andcommunication attempts with mobile device 1015—and use the log todetermine the presence status 1035 of first user 1010. For example,presence component 1030 may determine that first user 1010 is present onmobile device 1015 if the most recent communication or communicationattempt with mobile device 1015 was successful and may determine thatfirst user 1010 is not present on mobile device 1015 if the most recentcommunication or communication attempt with mobile device 1015 was notsuccessful. The presence component 1030 may be operative to depend on acommunication log if the most recent communication or communicationattempt is sufficiently recent, such as within a predefined threshold(e.g. thirty minutes). The presence component 1030 may be operative toperform an active determination using delivery channel 1025 if thecommunication log is insufficiently recent or if no record of a recentcommunication or communication attempt is logged. The presence component1030 may use various detectors or sensors to monitor various physicalproperties of first user 1010 and/or mobile device 1015, such as aproximity detector to detect a distance between first user 1010 andmobile device 1015, an accelerometer to measure movement of mobiledevice 1015 which implies presence of first user 1010, a thermal sensorto detect heat on a cover of mobile device 1015 which implies first user1010 is holding mobile device 1015, and so forth.

The display component 1040 may be operative to indicate to a second user1020 whether the first user 1010 is present to receive SMS messages onthe mobile device 1015. The second user 1020 may be using a seconddevice 1025 on which to receive the presence status 1035.

FIG. 11 illustrates a second embodiment of a presence system 1000 foruse with notification system 100 wherein a web page 1120 is used tocommunicate the presence status 1035 to the second user 1020.

The display component 1040 may be operative to include a SMS presenceindicator 1135 for the first user 1010 in a web page 1120 transmitted tothe second user 1020, the SMS presence indicator 1135 indicating whetherthe first user 1010 is present to receive SMS messages on the mobiledevice 1015. The web page 1120 may be transmitted to second user 1020 onsecond device 1025. The web page 1120 may be transmitted to second user1020 in response to second user 1020 requesting the presence of firstuser 1010, in response to second user 1020 requesting a web pagecontaining information associated with first user 1010, or in responseto any web page request by second user 1020.

The presence indicator 1135 may comprise an element of web page 1120associated with a name, Internet identity, Internet handle, Internetavatar, or other identifier for first user 1010. The presence indicator1135 may comprise a graphical element, text string, image, or otherelement capable of indicating whether or not first user 1010 is present.For example, the name of first user 1010 may be displayed on web page1120 accompanied by a symbol comprising presence indicator 1135 thatchanges color or shape to communicate presence status 1035. The presenceindicator 1135 may be displayed geometrically proximate to theidentifier for first user 1010, such as next to, to the side of, above,or beneath the identifier.

In some embodiments, the SMS presence indicator 1135 may indicate anamount of time since the first user 1010 was determined to be present toreceive SMS messages on the mobile device 1015. For example the presenceindicator 1135 may include a text indicator of the time since the firstuser 1010 was determined to be present. As the presence indicator 1136may be one color to indicate presence and another to indicatenon-presence, the display component 1040 may be operative to dynamicallyvary the color of presence indicator 1135 between the former and lattercolors to indicate the transition between confirmed presence anduncertainty as to whether the first user 1010 is present. The displaycomponent 1040 may be operative to include one of a plurality ofpresence indicators as the presence indictor 1135 wherein each of theplurality of presence indicators indicates a particular time since firstuser 1010 was determined to be present on mobile device 1015.

FIG. 12 illustrates a third embodiment of a presence system 1000 for usewith notification system 100 wherein a social networking web page 1220is used to communicate the presence status 1035 to the second user 1020.

In some embodiments, the web page 1120 may comprise a social networkingweb page 1220, the first user 1010 and the second user 1020 having adefined relationship in a social networking service 110, the socialnetworking web page 1220 transmitted to the second user 1020 by thesocial networking service 110. The social networking web page 1220 maybe transmitted to the second user 1020 via second device 1025 anddisplay component 1040. As such, the display component 1040 and thepresence component 1030 may be components of the social networkingservice 110, the presence system 1000 performing presence services forthe social networking service 110.

The social networking web page 1220 may comprise profile information1225 for the first user 1010, the presence component 1030 operative todetermine whether the first user 1010 is present to receive SMS messageson the mobile device 1015 in response to the second user 1020 requestingthe social networking web page 1220 using request 1210. For example, thesocial networking web page 1220 may comprise a profile of first user1010 on the social networking service 110. The second user 1020 may usesecond device 1025 to send a request 1210 to social networking service110 for the profile of first user 1010 and receive in response socialnetworking web page 1220 include profile information 1225 as part of aweb page 1120 containing the profile of first user 1010 presented alongwith presence indicator 1135.

FIG. 13 illustrates a fourth embodiment of a presence system 1000 foruse with notification system 100 wherein a successful partial message1315 is used to determine that a first user 1010 is present on mobiledevice 1015.

The presence component 1030 may be operative to transmit a partial SMSmessage 1315 to the mobile device 1015, to receive a response 1325 tothe partial SMS message 1315 from the mobile device 1015, and todetermine that the first user 1010 is present to receive SMS messages onthe mobile device 1015 based on the received response 1325 to thepartial SMS message 1315.

A partial message 1315 may comprise a message containing routinginformation for the mobile device 1015 but without a message body forfirst user 1010 of mobile device 1015. The partial message 1315 maycomprise a metadata command or command in the header of the partialmessage 1315 to indicate to the mobile device 1015 that a response isrequested, such as by sending the “AT” console command in order torequest a corresponding “OK” signal from the mobile device 1015.

FIG. 14 illustrates a fifth embodiment of a presence system 1000 for usewith notification system 100 wherein a failed partial message 1315 isused to determine that the first user 1010 is not present on mobiledevice 1015.

The presence component 1030 may be operative to initiate transmission ofa partial SMS message 1315 to the mobile device 1015, to determine thatthe transmission to the mobile device 1015 has failed, and to determinethat the first user 1010 is not present to receive SMS messages on themobile device 1015 based on the failed transmission of partial message1315 to the mobile device.

Determining that the partial message 1315 was not delivered to themobile device 1015 may comprise the presence component 1030 calculatingthat a sufficient period of time has passed since the transmission ofthe partial message 1315 to the mobile device 1015 without a response1325 being received to indicate that the mobile device 1015 isavailable, such as through the expiration of a time-to-live (TTL) timer.

In some embodiments, the presence component 1030 may be operative toperform periodic attempts to transmit partial SMS messages to the mobiledevice 1015 and to update a presence record for the first user 1010based on the attempts to transmit, the display component 1040 operativeto indicate to the second user 1020 whether the first user 1010 ispresent to receive SMS messages on the mobile device 1015 based on thepresence record. The periodic attempts may be performed on a regularschedule, such as once every hour, half-hour, or day.

In some embodiments, the presence component 1030 may be operative todelay the periodic attempts to transmit partial SMS messages when thepresence component 1030 determines that the first user 1010 hassuccessful transmitted or received an SMS message using the mobiledevice 1015. For example, if the presence system 1000 is being used aspart of a social networking service 110, the social networking service110 may sometimes exchange SMS messages with the first user 1010 usingmobile 1015 such as the transmission of notifications. The presencecomponent 1030 may be operative to record the successful transmission ofa notification 155 to the mobile device 1015 in the same manner as asuccessful check using a partial message 1315. As such, this may delaythe next iteration of periodic attempts to update the presence recordfor a first user 1010.

In some embodiments, the presence component 1030 may be operative todetermine whether the first user 1010 is present to receive SMS messageson the mobile device 1015 in response to the second user 1020 initiatingthe composition of a message to the first user 1010. For example, if thepresence system 1000 is being used as part of a social networkingservice 110, the second user 1020 may be compose a message on the socialnetworking service 110—such as by using a web page or standaloneapplication for the social networking service 110—for sending to thefirst user 1010 over the social networking service 110. In response tothe second user 1020 initiating composition of the message, the socialnetworking service 110 may be operative to request that the presencecomponent 1030 determine presence status 1035. Upon the determination ofpresence status 1035, the social networking service 110 may communicatethat presence status 1035 to the second user 1020 on the socialnetworking web page 1220 being used to compose the message via thepresence indicator 1135. As such, the second user 1020 composing themessage may be informed of the possibility that first user 1010 isavailable to receive the message via an SMS message.

FIG. 15 illustrates an embodiment of a validity system 1500 for use withnotification system 100. The validity system 1500 may comprise avalidity component 1540. The validity system 1500 may comprise asub-component of channel component 140 of notification engine 130.

The validity component 1540 may be operative to determine whether adelivery channel 1530 associated with a user 1510 is valid forcommunication with the user 1510. In some embodiments, the deliverychannel 1530 may comprise one of a plurality of delivery channels 170-aused by a notification engine 130. A delivery channel 1530 may beconsidered valid if the information available to validity component 1540indicates that the user 1510 actually available through device 1520 isthe user desired for communication, such as a subscriber 120 to anotification engine 130.

The validity component 1540 may be operative to receive a request 1555from a sender 1550 to determine whether the delivery channel 1530 isvalid, to determine whether the delivery channel 1530 is valid inresponse to the request 1555, and to transmit a response 1545 to therequest 1555 to the sender 1550 based on the determination of whetherthe delivery channel 1530 is valid. In some embodiments, the sender 1550may comprise the channel component 140 of a notification engine 130serving as part of a social networking service 110. As discussed, thechannel component 140 may be operative to check the validity of adelivery channel 1530 in response to the need to determine what channels145 of a plurality of delivery channels 170-a to use in sending anotification 155.

FIG. 16 illustrates a second embodiment of a validity system 1500 foruse with notification system 100 wherein a device subscriber informationdatabase 720 is used to determine the validity of delivery channel 1530.

In some embodiments, the validity component 1540 may be operative toquery a database of device subscriber information for device information1625 of a device 1520 associated with the delivery channel 1530, toanalyze the device information 1625 to determine whether the device 1520is associated with the user 1510, and to determine whether the deliverychannel 1530 is valid based on whether the device 1520 is associatedwith the user. The query 1615 may be sent to the device subscriberinformation database 720 specifying an identifier for the device 1520,the device information 1625 received in response including informationrelevant to the determination of whether delivery channel 1530 is valid.

For example, the device 1520 may comprise a mobile phone with anassociated phone number, the database comprising a Subscriber Presenceand Profile Database (SSPD) such as a Home Location Register (HLR), HomeSubscriber Server (HSS), or User Profile Server Function (UPSF)maintained by a cellular provider. The validity component 1540 may beoperative to determine that the delivery channel 1530 is valid based onthe phone number being associated with a subscriber identity module(SIM) card in the SSPD, wherein the SIM card matches a previous SIM cardthat the validity component 1540 determined was associated with thephone number. Similarly, the validity component 1540 may be operative todetermine that the delivery channel 1530 is not valid based on the phonenumber being associated with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card inthe SSPD, wherein the SIM card does not match a previous SIM card thatthe validity component 1540 determined was associated with the phonenumber.

In some embodiments, the validity component 1540 may be operative todetermine that the delivery channel is not valid based on a validityperiod expiring. The validity component 1540 may be operative to set thestart of a validity period when the user 1510 confirms that device 1520actually belongs to user 1510, such as by entering an identifier (e.g. aphone number) for device 1520 with validity component 1540 or byexplicitly confirming the validity with validity component 1540. Forexample, if validity component 1540 is a component of a notificationengine 130 as part of social networking service 110, the validitycomponent 1540 may be notified by the social networking service 110 tostart the validity period based on the user 1510 registering device 1520with the social networking service 110.

The validity period may comprise a period of time determined to be lessthan the recycle time of an identifier for device 1520, such as a phonenumber. After a user 1510 relinquishes a phone number the phone numbermay eventually be recycled by a telephone or cellular telephoneprovider. Typically the provider will have a delay period they will waitbefore recycling the number and assigning it to a new user. The validityperiod may be set to expire the delivery channel 1530—set the deliverychannel 1530 as being not valid—after the expiration of the validityperiod to indicate the possibility that the identifier for device 1520is associated with a new user.

In some embodiments, the validity component 1540 may be operative toextend the validity period based on the validity component 1540determining that the user 1510 has successfully transmitted or receivedusing the delivery channel 1530. For example, if validity component 1540is a component of a notification engine 130 as part of social networkingservice 110, the validity component 1540 may notified if thenotification engine 130 or social networking service 110 has successfulcontact with the user 1510 over the delivery channel 1530.

In some embodiments, determining that a delivery channel 1530 is notvalid may comprise flagging, noting, registering, or otherwiseindicating in association with the store of information for deliverychannel 1530 that the delivery channel 1530 is not valid and should notbe used for communication. In some cases, a notification engine 130 or asocial networking service 110 may have one or more delivery channelsassigned to a subscriber 120. As such, in some embodiments if a deliverychannel 1530 assigned to the subscriber 120 is determined to not bevalid, the assignment of the delivery channel 1530 to the subscriber 120may be flagged, noted, registered, or otherwise indicate that thedelivery channel 1530 should not be used, or is not currently trusted,as a delivery channel for the subscriber 120. In some cases, the socialnetworking service 110 may be operative to contact the subscriber 120when a delivery channel 1530 is indicated as not being valid in order todetermine whether the delivery channel 1530 may still be used tocommunicate with the subscriber 120. Alternatively, if a deliverychannel 1530 assigned to the subscriber 120 is determined to not bevalid, the assignment between the delivery channel 1530 and thesubscriber 120 may be revoked or removed such that the delivery channel1530 is no longer assigned to the subscriber 120.

FIG. 17 illustrates a third embodiment of a validity system 1500 for usewith notification system 100 wherein an application 1710 on the device1520 is used to check the validity of delivery channel 1720.

In some embodiments, the delivery channel 1530 may be associated with adevice 1520, the validity component 1540 operative to determine whetherthe delivery channel 1530 is valid based on application information 1715received from an application 1710 installed on the device 1520, theapplication 1710 distinct from the delivery channel 1530. A deliverychannel 1530 may be associated with a device 1520 in the sense that thedelivery channel 1530 is associated with an identifier bound to thedevice 1520 instead of the user 1510, such as a phone number for thedevice 1520.

If the device 1520 comprises a mobile computer such a smartphone,application 1710 may be a first-party, second-party, or third-partyapplication installed on the device 1520. If the validity component 1540is a component of a social networking service 110, the application 1710may comprise an application 1710 provided by social networking service110 for use with social networking service 110. For example, application1710 may be a push-enabled application 1710 capable of receiving pushnotifications over a delivery channel 1720 such as the Internet. Theapplication 1710 may contain registration information for the user 1510in the social networking service 110, the registrations informationconfirming that application 1710 installed on device 1520 is associatedwith user 1510 and that therefore alternate delivery channel 1530 todevice 1520 is valid.

Application information 1715 sent from application 1710 to validitycomponent 1540 over delivery channel 1720 may be sent in response to aquery by validity component 1540 to application 1710 to confirm theidentity of user 1510 associated with the application 1710. The validitycomponent 1540 may be operative to send this query to the application1710 in response to the request 1555 from sender 1550 to determinewhether delivery channel 1530 is valid. The application information 1715may comprise identity information of user 1510 or may comprise aconfirmation of an identity sent by the validity component 1540 to theapplication 1710.

FIG. 18 illustrates a block diagram of a centralized system 1800. Thecentralized system 1800 may implement some or all of the structureand/or operations for the social networking service 110 in a singlecomputing entity, such as entirely within a single device 1820.

The device 1820 may comprise any electronic device capable of receiving,processing, and sending information for the social networking service110. Examples of an electronic device may include without limitation anultra-mobile device, a mobile device, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a mobile computing device, a smart phone, a telephone, a digitaltelephone, a cellular telephone, eBook readers, a handset, a one-waypager, a two-way pager, a messaging device, a computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebookcomputer, a netbook computer, a handheld computer, a tablet computer, aserver, a server array or server farm, a web server, a network server,an Internet server, a work station, a mini-computer, a main framecomputer, a supercomputer, a network appliance, a web appliance, adistributed computing system, multiprocessor systems, processor-basedsystems, consumer electronics, programmable consumer electronics, gamedevices, television, digital television, set top box, wireless accesspoint, base station, subscriber station, mobile subscriber center, radionetwork controller, router, hub, gateway, bridge, switch, machine, orcombination thereof. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

The device 1820 may execute processing operations or logic for thesocial networking service 110 using a processing component 1830. Theprocessing component 1830 may comprise various hardware elements,software elements, or a combination of both. Examples of hardwareelements may include devices, logic devices, components, processors,microprocessors, circuits, processor circuits, circuit elements (e.g.,transistors, resistors, capacitors, inductors, and so forth), integratedcircuits, application specific integrated circuits (ASIC), programmablelogic devices (PLD), digital signal processors (DSP), field programmablegate array (FPGA), memory units, logic gates, registers, semiconductordevice, chips, microchips, chip sets, and so forth. Examples of softwareelements may include software components, programs, applications,computer programs, application programs, system programs, softwaredevelopment programs, machine programs, operating system software,middleware, firmware, software modules, routines, subroutines,functions, methods, procedures, software interfaces, application programinterfaces (API), instruction sets, computing code, computer code, codesegments, computer code segments, words, values, symbols, or anycombination thereof. Determining whether an embodiment is implementedusing hardware elements and/or software elements may vary in accordancewith any number of factors, such as desired computational rate, powerlevels, heat tolerances, processing cycle budget, input data rates,output data rates, memory resources, data bus speeds and other design orperformance constraints, as desired for a given implementation.

The device 1820 may execute communications operations or logic for thesocial networking service 110 using communications component 1840. Thecommunications component 1840 may implement any well-knowncommunications techniques and protocols, such as techniques suitable foruse with packet-switched networks (e.g., public networks such as theInternet, private networks such as an enterprise intranet, and soforth), circuit-switched networks (e.g., the public switched telephonenetwork), or a combination of packet-switched networks andcircuit-switched networks (with suitable gateways and translators). Thecommunications component 1840 may include various types of standardcommunication elements, such as one or more communications interfaces,network interfaces, network interface cards (NIC), radios, wirelesstransmitters/receivers (transceivers), wired and/or wirelesscommunication media, physical connectors, and so forth. By way ofexample, and not limitation, communication media 1812 include wiredcommunications media and wireless communications media. Examples ofwired communications media may include a wire, cable, metal leads,printed circuit boards (PCB), backplanes, switch fabrics, semiconductormaterial, twisted-pair wire, co-axial cable, fiber optics, a propagatedsignal, and so forth. Examples of wireless communications media mayinclude acoustic, radio-frequency (RF) spectrum, infrared and otherwireless media.

The device 1820 may communicate with other devices 1810, 1850 over acommunications media 1812 using communications signals 1814 via thecommunications component 1840. The devices 1810, 1850 may be internal orexternal to the device 1820 as desired for a given implementation.

Social networking service 110 may include within it notification engine100, SMSC 530, validity component 1540, presence component 1030, anddisplay component 1040. Device 1820 may be operative to carry out thetasks of these elements using processing component 1830 andcommunications component 1840. Devices 1810 and 1850 may comprise any ofdevice 520, mobile device 1015, second device 1025, or device 1520, thesignals 1814 over media 1812 comprising the interactions between thesocial networking service 110 and its elements and these respectivedevices.

FIG. 19 illustrates a block diagram of a distributed system 1900. Thedistributed system 1900 may distribute portions of the structure and/oroperations for the social networking service 110 across multiplecomputing entities. Examples of distributed system 1900 may includewithout limitation a client-server architecture, a 3-tier architecture,an N-tier architecture, a tightly-coupled or clustered architecture, apeer-to-peer architecture, a master-slave architecture, a shareddatabase architecture, and other types of distributed systems. Theembodiments are not limited in this context.

The distributed system 1900 may comprise server devices 1915, 1925,1935, 1945, and 1955. In general, the server devices 1915, 1925, 1935,1945, and 1955 may be the same or similar to the client device 1820 asdescribed with reference to FIG. 18. For instance, the server systems1915, 1925, 1935, 1945, and 1955 may each comprise a processingcomponent 1930 and a communications component 1940 which are the same orsimilar to the processing component 1830 and the communicationscomponent 1840, respectively, as described with reference to FIG. 18. Inanother example, the server devices 1915, 1925, 1935, 1945, and 1955 maycommunicate over a communications media 1912 using communicationssignals 1914 via the communications components 1940.

The server devices 1915, 1925, 1935, 1945, and 1955 may comprise oremploy one or more client programs that operate to perform variousmethodologies in accordance with the described embodiments. Similarly,the server devices 1915, 1925, 1935, 1945, and 1955 may comprise oremploy one or more server programs that operate to perform variousmethodologies in accordance with the described embodiments. For example,server device 1915 may implement social networking service 110 or,similarly, the portions of social networking service 110 other thanthose hosted on other server devices. It will be appreciated the serverdevice 1915—or any of the server devices—may itself comprise multipleservers. Server device 1925 may implement notification engine 130 whichmay perform notification functions on behalf of social networkingservice 110. Server device 1935 may implement SMSC 530, which mayperform SMS messaging and SMS message management on behalf ofnotification engine 130 and social networking service 110. Server device1945 may implement presence system 1000, which may perform presencefunctions on behalf of social networking service 110, notificationengine 130, and SMSC 530. It will be appreciated that some of thefunctions of presence system 1000 may use SMSC 530, such as for thedetermination of SMS presence. Server device 1955 may implement validitysystem 1000, which may perform validity functions on behalf of socialnetworking service 110, notification engine 130, and SMSC 530. It willbe appreciated that some of the functions of the validity system 1500may use SMSC 530, such as for checking the validity of an SMS deliverychannel.

Included herein is a set of flow charts representative of exemplarymethodologies for performing novel aspects of the disclosedarchitecture. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the oneor more methodologies shown herein, for example, in the form of a flowchart or flow diagram, are shown and described as a series of acts, itis to be understood and appreciated that the methodologies are notlimited by the order of acts, as some acts may, in accordance therewith,occur in a different order and/or concurrently with other acts from thatshown and described herein. For example, those skilled in the art willunderstand and appreciate that a methodology could alternatively berepresented as a series of interrelated states or events, such as in astate diagram. Moreover, not all acts illustrated in a methodology maybe required for a novel implementation.

FIG. 20 illustrates one embodiment of a logic flow 2000. The logic flow2000 may be representative of some or all of the operations executed byone or more embodiments described herein.

In the illustrated embodiment shown in FIG. 20, the logic flow 2000 maybe operative at block 2002 to receive from a social networking service110 an event 115 associated with a subscriber 120 of the socialnetworking service 110. It will be appreciated that the logic flow 2000may be implemented by the social networking service 110 and that as suchthe reception of the event 115 may comprise one component of the socialnetworking service 110 transmitting the event 115 to a component of thesocial networking service responsible for performing logic flow 2000,such as notification engine 130.

The logic flow 2000 may be operative at block 2004 to determine tocommunicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120. The determination tocommunicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120 may comprise adetermination to attempt to communicate the event 115, wherein thatdetermination may be adjusted or changed over time as the contextdevelops. For example, if the event 115 were to cease being relevant tosubscriber 120 prior to the event 115 being communicated, thecommunication may be cancelled.

The logic flow 2000 may be operative at block 2006 to determine one ormore channels 145 of a plurality of channels 170-a to use to communicatethe event 115 to the subscriber 120 according to rankings 150 associatedwith each channel 170-a, the rankings 150 specific to the subscriber 120and determined according to subscriber information. For example,subscriber responses 265-c to prior notifications 255-b may be recorded,the recorded responses 265-c comprising the subscriber history. Rankingsmay be determined for each of the plurality of channels 170-a accordingto the recorded responses. The determining of the one or more channels145 may therefore be based on the associated rankings 150 and one ormore of preferences set by the subscriber 120, information aboutsubscriber devices, subscriber presence on one or more devices, acurrent location, or a current date and time.

The logic flow 2000 may be operative at block 2008 to construct anotification 155 based on the event 115. Constructing the notification155 may comprise converting the event 115 from a machine-readable formappropriate for processing by notification engine 130 to ahuman-readable form appropriate for reading by the subscriber 120. Thisconversion may be dependent on the capabilities of the determineddelivery channels 145 and may include multiple human-readable forms eachone specific to one or more of the determined delivery channels 145.

The logic flow 2000 may be operative at block 2010 to transmit thenotification 155 to the subscriber 120 using the determined one or morechannels 145. This transmission may comprise the substantially-paralleltransmission of the notification 155 across each of the determineddelivery channels 145. If one of the determined delivery channels 145 isSMS the transmission of notification 155 may include sending thenotification 155 to the SMSC 530 for transmission using the SMSC 530transmission component 550.

In some embodiments, the logic flow 2000 may be further operative todetermine two or more channels 145 of the plurality of channels 170-a touse to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120, to determinethat one of the two or more determined channels 145 has successfullytransmitted the event 115 to the subscriber 120, and cancel transmissionof the event 115 to the subscriber 120 on channels other than the onethat successfully transmitted the event 115 to the subscriber 120. Thismay be prevent the subscriber 120 from being harassed by notification ofan event 115 of which they were already notified.

In some embodiments, the logic flow 2000 may be further operator toreceive a second event 315 associated with the subscriber 120, determineto communicate the second event 315 to the subscriber 120, combine theevent 115 and the second event 315 into a second notification 355, andreplace the notification 155 for transmission to the subscriber 120 withthe second notification 355. This may serve to reduce the number ofnotifications sent to a subscriber 120 and therefore reduce anydistraction of the subscriber 120 at receiving a notification 155 or 355while still communicating both events 115 and 315.

In some embodiments, logic flow 2000 may be further operative todetermine that one of the determined channels 145 has had a faileddelivery attempt, to determine an additional channel of the plurality ofchannels 170-a to use to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120in response to the failed delivery attempt according to the rankings 150associated with each channel 170-a, and transmit the notification 155 tothe subscriber using the determined additional channel. If SMSC 530 isbeing used in the transmission of notification 155 the determinationthat one of the determined channels 145 has had a failed deliveryattempt may comprise the transmission component failing to receive aresponse to a partial message 615, notifying the control component 560via monitoring information 555, and the control component 560 sending anotification 665 of the failed delivery attempt to the notificationengine 130.

In some embodiments, logic flow 2000 may be further operative to checkthe validity of one or more of the plurality of channels 170-a inresponse to the received event 115 and determine the one or morechannels 145 to use to communicate the event 115 to the subscriber 120according to the validity check. For example, the notification engine130 may use validity component 1540 as part of validity system 1500 todetermine whether a delivery channel is valid. If the delivery channelbeing check is an SMS channel, SMSC 1530 may be used, such as withvalidity component 1540, to determine whether the SMS channel is valid,such as by performing a check with device subscriber informationdatabase 720.

FIG. 21 illustrates an embodiment of an exemplary computing architecture2100 suitable for implementing various embodiments as previouslydescribed. In one embodiment, the computing architecture 2100 maycomprise or be implemented as part of an electronic device. Examples ofan electronic device may include those described with reference to FIG.18, among others. The embodiments are not limited in this context.

As used in this application, the terms “system” and “component” areintended to refer to a computer-related entity, either hardware, acombination of hardware and software, software, or software inexecution, examples of which are provided by the exemplary computingarchitecture 2100. For example, a component can be, but is not limitedto being, a process running on a processor, a processor, a hard diskdrive, multiple storage drives (of optical and/or magnetic storagemedium), an object, an executable, a thread of execution, a program,and/or a computer. By way of illustration, both an application runningon a server and the server can be a component. One or more componentscan reside within a process and/or thread of execution, and a componentcan be localized on one computer and/or distributed between two or morecomputers. Further, components may be communicatively coupled to eachother by various types of communications media to coordinate operations.The coordination may involve the uni-directional or bi-directionalexchange of information. For instance, the components may communicateinformation in the form of signals communicated over the communicationsmedia. The information can be implemented as signals allocated tovarious signal lines. In such allocations, each message is a signal.Further embodiments, however, may alternatively employ data messages.Such data messages may be sent across various connections. Exemplaryconnections include parallel interfaces, serial interfaces, and businterfaces.

The computing architecture 2100 includes various common computingelements, such as one or more processors, multi-core processors,co-processors, memory units, chipsets, controllers, peripherals,interfaces, oscillators, timing devices, video cards, audio cards,multimedia input/output (I/O) components, power supplies, and so forth.The embodiments, however, are not limited to implementation by thecomputing architecture 2100.

As shown in FIG. 21, the computing architecture 2100 comprises aprocessing unit 2104, a system memory 2106 and a system bus 2108. Theprocessing unit 2104 can be any of various commercially availableprocessors, including without limitation an AMD® Athlon®, Duron® andOpteron® processors; ARM® application, embedded and secure processors;IBM® and Motorola® DragonBall® and PowerPC® processors; IBM and Sony®Cell processors; Intel® Celeron®, Core (2) Duo®, Itanium®, Pentium®,Xeon®, and XScale® processors; and similar processors. Dualmicroprocessors, multi-core processors, and other multi-processorarchitectures may also be employed as the processing unit 2104.

The system bus 2108 provides an interface for system componentsincluding, but not limited to, the system memory 2106 to the processingunit 2104. The system bus 2108 can be any of several types of busstructure that may further interconnect to a memory bus (with or withouta memory controller), a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of avariety of commercially available bus architectures. Interface adaptersmay connect to the system bus 2108 via a slot architecture. Example slotarchitectures may include without limitation Accelerated Graphics Port(AGP), Card Bus, (Extended) Industry Standard Architecture ((E)ISA),Micro Channel Architecture (MCA), NuBus, Peripheral ComponentInterconnect (Extended) (PCI(X)), PCI Express, Personal Computer MemoryCard International Association (PCMCIA), and the like.

The computing architecture 2100 may comprise or implement variousarticles of manufacture. An article of manufacture may comprise acomputer-readable storage medium to store logic. Examples of acomputer-readable storage medium may include any tangible media capableof storing electronic data, including volatile memory or non-volatilememory, removable or non-removable memory, erasable or non-erasablememory, writeable or re-writeable memory, and so forth. Examples oflogic may include executable computer program instructions implementedusing any suitable type of code, such as source code, compiled code,interpreted code, executable code, static code, dynamic code,object-oriented code, visual code, and the like. Embodiments may also beat least partly implemented as instructions contained in or on anon-transitory computer-readable medium, which may be read and executedby one or more processors to enable performance of the operationsdescribed herein.

The system memory 2106 may include various types of computer-readablestorage media in the form of one or more higher speed memory units, suchas read-only memory (ROM), random-access memory (RAM), dynamic RAM(DRAM), Double-Data-Rate DRAM (DDRAM), synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), staticRAM (SRAM), programmable ROM (PROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, polymermemory such as ferroelectric polymer memory, ovonic memory, phase changeor ferroelectric memory, silicon-oxide-nitride-oxide-silicon (SONOS)memory, magnetic or optical cards, an array of devices such as RedundantArray of Independent Disks (RAID) drives, solid state memory devices(e.g., USB memory, solid state drives (SSD) and any other type ofstorage media suitable for storing information. In the illustratedembodiment shown in FIG. 21, the system memory 2106 can includenon-volatile memory 2110 and/or volatile memory 2112. A basicinput/output system (BIOS) can be stored in the non-volatile memory2110.

The computer 2102 may include various types of computer-readable storagemedia in the form of one or more lower speed memory units, including aninternal (or external) hard disk drive (HDD) 2114, a magnetic floppydisk drive (FDD) 2116 to read from or write to a removable magnetic disk2118, and an optical disk drive 2120 to read from or write to aremovable optical disk 2122 (e.g., a CD-ROM or DVD). The HDD 2114, FDD2116 and optical disk drive 2120 can be connected to the system bus 2108by a HDD interface 2124, an FDD interface 2126 and an optical driveinterface 2128, respectively. The HDD interface 2124 for external driveimplementations can include at least one or both of Universal Serial Bus(USB) and IEEE 1394 interface technologies.

The drives and associated computer-readable media provide volatileand/or nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, computer-executableinstructions, and so forth. For example, a number of program modules canbe stored in the drives and memory units 2110, 2112, including anoperating system 2130, one or more application programs 2132, otherprogram modules 2134, and program data 2136. In one embodiment, the oneor more application programs 2132, other program modules 2134, andprogram data 2136 can include, for example, the various applicationsand/or components of the social networking service 110.

A user can enter commands and information into the computer 2102 throughone or more wire/wireless input devices, for example, a keyboard 2138and a pointing device, such as a mouse 2140. Other input devices mayinclude microphones, infra-red (IR) remote controls, radio-frequency(RF) remote controls, game pads, stylus pens, card readers, dongles,finger print readers, gloves, graphics tablets, joysticks, keyboards,retina readers, touch screens (e.g., capacitive, resistive, etc.),trackballs, trackpads, sensors, styluses, and the like. These and otherinput devices are often connected to the processing unit 2104 through aninput device interface 2142 that is coupled to the system bus 2108, butcan be connected by other interfaces such as a parallel port, IEEE 1394serial port, a game port, a USB port, an IR interface, and so forth.

A monitor 2144 or other type of display device is also connected to thesystem bus 2108 via an interface, such as a video adaptor 2146. Themonitor 2144 may be internal or external to the computer 2102. Inaddition to the monitor 2144, a computer typically includes otherperipheral output devices, such as speakers, printers, and so forth.

The computer 2102 may operate in a networked environment using logicalconnections via wire and/or wireless communications to one or moreremote computers, such as a remote computer 2148. The remote computer2148 can be a workstation, a server computer, a router, a personalcomputer, portable computer, microprocessor-based entertainmentappliance, a peer device or other common network node, and typicallyincludes many or all of the elements described relative to the computer2102, although, for purposes of brevity, only a memory/storage device2150 is illustrated. The logical connections depicted includewire/wireless connectivity to a local area network (LAN) 2152 and/orlarger networks, for example, a wide area network (WAN) 2154. Such LANand WAN networking environments are commonplace in offices andcompanies, and facilitate enterprise-wide computer networks, such asintranets, all of which may connect to a global communications network,for example, the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 2102 isconnected to the LAN 2152 through a wire and/or wireless communicationnetwork interface or adaptor 2156. The adaptor 2156 can facilitate wireand/or wireless communications to the LAN 2152, which may also include awireless access point disposed thereon for communicating with thewireless functionality of the adaptor 2156.

When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 2102 can includea modem 2158, or is connected to a communications server on the WAN2154, or has other means for establishing communications over the WAN2154, such as by way of the Internet. The modem 2158, which can beinternal or external and a wire and/or wireless device, connects to thesystem bus 2108 via the input device interface 2142. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 2102, orportions thereof, can be stored in the remote memory/storage device2150. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown areexemplary and other means of establishing a communications link betweenthe computers can be used.

The computer 2102 is operable to communicate with wire and wirelessdevices or entities using the IEEE 802 family of standards, such aswireless devices operatively disposed in wireless communication (e.g.,IEEE 802.21 over-the-air modulation techniques). This includes at leastWi-Fi (or Wireless Fidelity), WiMax, and Bluetooth™ wirelesstechnologies, among others. Thus, the communication can be a predefinedstructure as with a conventional network or simply an ad hoccommunication between at least two devices. Wi-Fi networks use radiotechnologies called IEEE 802.21x (a, b, g, n, etc.) to provide secure,reliable, fast wireless connectivity. A Wi-Fi network can be used toconnect computers to each other, to the Internet, and to wire networks(which use IEEE 802.3-related media and functions).

FIG. 22 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary communicationsarchitecture 2200 suitable for implementing various embodiments aspreviously described. The communications architecture 2200 includesvarious common communications elements, such as a transmitter, receiver,transceiver, radio, network interface, baseband processor, antenna,amplifiers, filters, power supplies, and so forth. The embodiments,however, are not limited to implementation by the communicationsarchitecture 2200.

As shown in FIG. 22, the communications architecture 2200 comprisesincludes one or more clients 2202 and servers 2204. The clients 2202 mayimplement the devices 1810 or 1850. The servers 2204 may implement theserver devices 1820, 1915, 1925, 1935, 1945, or 1955. The clients 2202and the servers 2204 are operatively connected to one or more respectiveclient data stores 2208 and server data stores 2210 that can be employedto store information local to the respective clients 2202 and servers2204, such as cookies and/or associated contextual information.

The clients 2202 and the servers 2204 may communicate informationbetween each other using a communication framework 2206. Thecommunications framework 2206 may implement any well-knowncommunications techniques and protocols. The communications framework2206 may be implemented as a packet-switched network (e.g., publicnetworks such as the Internet, private networks such as an enterpriseintranet, and so forth), a circuit-switched network (e.g., the publicswitched telephone network), or a combination of a packet-switchednetwork and a circuit-switched network (with suitable gateways andtranslators).

The communications framework 2206 may implement various networkinterfaces arranged to accept, communicate, and connect to acommunications network. A network interface may be regarded as aspecialized form of an input output interface. Network interfaces mayemploy connection protocols including without limitation direct connect,Ethernet (e.g., thick, thin, twisted pair 10/100/1000 Base T, and thelike), token ring, wireless network interfaces, cellular networkinterfaces, IEEE 802.11a-x network interfaces, IEEE 802.16 networkinterfaces, IEEE 802.20 network interfaces, and the like. Further,multiple network interfaces may be used to engage with variouscommunications network types. For example, multiple network interfacesmay be employed to allow for the communication over broadcast,multicast, and unicast networks. Should processing requirements dictatea greater amount speed and capacity, distributed network controllerarchitectures may similarly be employed to pool, load balance, andotherwise increase the communicative bandwidth required by clients 2202and the servers 2204. A communications network may be any one and thecombination of wired and/or wireless networks including withoutlimitation a direct interconnection, a secured custom connection, aprivate network (e.g., an enterprise intranet), a public network (e.g.,the Internet), a Personal Area Network (PAN), a Local Area Network(LAN), a Metropolitan Area Network (MAN), an Operating Missions as Nodeson the Internet (OMNI), a Wide Area Network (WAN), a wireless network, acellular network, and other communications networks.

Some embodiments may be described using the expression “one embodiment”or “an embodiment” along with their derivatives. These terms mean that aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connectionwith the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment. Theappearances of the phrase “in one embodiment” in various places in thespecification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment.Further, some embodiments may be described using the expression“coupled” and “connected” along with their derivatives. These terms arenot necessarily intended as synonyms for each other. For example, someembodiments may be described using the terms “connected” and/or“coupled” to indicate that two or more elements are in direct physicalor electrical contact with each other. The term “coupled,” however, mayalso mean that two or more elements are not in direct contact with eachother, but yet still co-operate or interact with each other.

It is emphasized that the Abstract of the Disclosure is provided toallow a reader to quickly ascertain the nature of the technicaldisclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not beused to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims. Inaddition, in the foregoing Detailed Description, it can be seen thatvarious features are grouped together in a single embodiment for thepurpose of streamlining the disclosure. This method of disclosure is notto be interpreted as reflecting an intention that the claimedembodiments require more features than are expressly recited in eachclaim. Rather, as the following claims reflect, inventive subject matterlies in less than all features of a single disclosed embodiment. Thusthe following claims are hereby incorporated into the DetailedDescription, with each claim standing on its own as a separateembodiment. In the appended claims, the terms “including” and “in which”are used as the plain-English equivalents of the respective terms“comprising” and “wherein,” respectively. Moreover, the terms “first,”“second,” “third,” and so forth, are used merely as labels, and are notintended to impose numerical requirements on their objects.

What has been described above includes examples of the disclosedarchitecture. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components and/or methodologies, but one ofordinary skill in the art may recognize that many further combinationsand permutations are possible. Accordingly, the novel architecture isintended to embrace all such alterations, modifications and variationsthat fall within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus, comprising: a processorcircuit; a hardware communications component; and a validity componentoperative on the processor circuit to receive a request from a senderdevice, via the hardware communications component, to determine whethera delivery channel is valid for communication with a recipient user, thedelivery channel comprising a form of electronic communication andassociated with a device and with a device user, and in response to therequest: to query a database of device subscriber information for deviceinformation of the device associated with the delivery channel, toanalyze the device information to determine whether the device usermatches the recipient user, to receive information from an applicationinstalled on the device, where the information includes an identity of auser associated with the application, the application distinct from thedelivery channel, to determine that the delivery channel is valid forcommunication with the recipient user when the device user matches therecipient user and when the user associated with the application matchesthe recipient user, and to transmit a response to the request to thesender device when the delivery channel is valid.
 2. The apparatus ofclaim 1, the device comprising a mobile phone with an associated phonenumber, the database comprising a home location register (HLR).
 3. Theapparatus of claim 2, the validity component operative to determine thatthe delivery channel is valid based on the phone number being associatedwith a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in the HLR, wherein the SIMcard matches a previous SIM card that the validity component determinedwas associated with the phone number.
 4. The apparatus of claim 2, thevalidity component operative to determine that the delivery channel isnot valid based on the phone number being associated with a subscriberidentity module (SIM) card in the HLR, wherein the SIM card does notmatch a previous SIM card that the validity component determined wasassociated with the phone number.
 5. The apparatus of claim 1, thevalidity component operative to extend a validity period for a deliverychannel based on the validity component determining that the user hassuccessfully transmitted or received using the delivery channel.
 6. Acomputer-implemented method, comprising: receiving a request from asender device to determine whether a delivery channel is valid forcommunication with a recipient user, the delivery channel comprising aform of electronic communication and associated with a device and with adevice user, and in response to the request: querying a database ofdevice subscriber information for device information of the deviceassociated with the delivery channel; analyzing the device informationto determine whether the device user matches the recipient user;receiving information from an application installed on the device, wherethe information includes an identity of a user associated with theapplication, the application distinct from the delivery channel;determining that the delivery channel is valid for communication withthe recipient user when the device user matches the recipient user andwhen the user associated with the application matches the recipientuser; and transmitting a response to the request to the sender devicewhen the delivery channel is valid.
 7. The computer-implemented methodof claim 6, the device comprising a mobile phone with an associatedphone number, the database comprising a home location register (HLR). 8.The computer-implemented method of claim 6, comprising: determining thatthe delivery channel is valid based on the phone number being associatedwith a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in the HLR, wherein the SIMcard matches a previous SIM card associated with the phone number. 9.The computer-implemented method of claim 6, comprising: determining thatthe delivery channel is not valid based on the phone number beingassociated with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card in the HLR,wherein the SIM card does not match a previous SIM card associated withthe phone number.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 6,comprising: determining that the user has successfully transmitted orreceived using the delivery channel; and extending a validity period fora delivery channel.
 11. At least one non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause asystem to: receive a request from a sender device to determine whether adelivery channel is valid for communication with a recipient user, thedelivery channel comprising a form of electronic communication andassociated with a device and with a device user, and in response to therequest: query a database of device subscriber information for deviceinformation of the device associated with the delivery channel; analyzethe device information to determine whether the device user matches therecipient user; receive information from an application installed on thedevice, where the information includes an identity of a user associatedwith the application, the application distinct from the deliverychannel; determine that the delivery channel is valid when the deviceuser matches the recipient user and when the user associated with theapplication matches the recipient user; and transmit a response to therequest to the sender device based on the determination of whether thedelivery channel is valid.
 12. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 11, the device comprising a mobile phone with anassociated phone number, the database comprising a home locationregister (HLR).
 13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage mediumof claim 11, comprising instructions that when executed cause the systemto: determine that the delivery channel is valid based on the phonenumber being associated with a subscriber identity module (SIM) card inthe HLR, wherein the SIM card matches a previous SIM card associatedwith the phone number.
 14. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 11, comprising instructions that when executed cause thesystem to: determine that the delivery channel is not valid based on thephone number being associated with a subscriber identity module (SIM)card in the HLR, wherein the SIM card does not match a previous SIM cardassociated with the phone number.
 15. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 11, comprising instructionsthat when executed cause the system to: determine that the user hassuccessfully transmitted or received using the delivery channel; andextend a validity period for a delivery channel.